Illinois lawmaker questions IDHS over years-long data breach

(The Center Square) – An Illinois lawmaker slammed the state agency as “incompetent” after the Department of Human Services revealed it had accidentally exposed private health information of hundreds of thousands of residents on a public website and left it accessible for more than three years before discovering the breach.

State Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, said the breach, and the agency’s delayed public notification, follows a troubling pattern of data security failures across multiple state agencies under the Pritzker administration.

“This isn’t the first data breach,” Bryant told TCS. “What’s alarming is how long this information was publicly accessible and how long it took for people to be notified after the problem was discovered.”

IDHS said incorrect privacy settings exposed protected health information for more than ...